A Texan conservative Anglican -- yes, a square peg -- ponders both churchly and worldly things and enjoys his new church.

Monday, December 01, 2014

An excerpt from Pilot Point – The Old South Café

Last month, I
noted that most of my novel Pilot Point
is set around 1990 when I was writing the first draft, and that much has
changed since then, particularly the closing of the cattle sale barn just west
of the town of Pilot Point.

Another setting
that has changed is the Old South Café on south side of the town square.I enjoyed their excellent burgers when
I moved to the Pilot Point area in 1988, but the place closed well before I
even finished the first draft of my novel.

Even though I
frequented the Café for two or three years at the most, I found it quite
memorable.The excellent burgers,
the leaky ceiling, and, yes, being stared at the first time I ate there as the
new guy in town all found their way into my novel.Moreover, the Old South Café is where the key characters
Clayton Hays and Bowie Smith meet.Clayton had just moved to a rise outside the town of Pilot Point when .
. .

---

Three mornings later, the rest of his possessions and what little
furniture he had came in on the moving van. Much of the load really wasn’t his;
it was his family’s, kept in storage for years out in Monahans. Being the last
surviving member of his family, the responsibility fell to him.

Once
the van was gone, he drove into town to check his P.O. box and get some lunch.
He decided to try the Old South Cafe on the square. He walked into the diner on
the long, weathered storefront and found a seat on the side of the room.

He
felt strange. He looked up and noticed that about half the room was staring at
him. He looked aside then ran his hand across his face to make sure there
wasn’t any shaving cream or anything on him. There wasn’t. Then he figured they
were staring because he was new in town.

The
eyes went back to their lunches, and the woman who was running the place
brought him a menu. She was pleasant, blond, and pretty in an earthy way, with
light character lines from hard work. She went back into the kitchen to
supervise the cooking then brought some food out and came back over to take his
order.

“What
you want, hun?”

While
he was waiting for his lunch, he heard the distant rumble of thunder. He looked
out the front and noticed it was getting darker. He looked around the plain
modest room. There were twenty people in there at most, but that was just about
all the room could handle. Most of them were men in their gimme caps and cowboy
hats. A table in the middle of the room was making most of the noise. Wearing
dusty cowboy hats and wearing dust and grime in general, the three men appeared
to him to be cowhands.

He
watched them get their burger plates with beans and cut fries, and then he got
his. He was judging his burger to be excellent when a sharp lightning strike
hit to the north of the Square. He took a bite of his burger and a fork full of
beans as he kept looking out front. It started pouring down outside.

Water
suddenly began dripping down from the ceiling—and it was raining in the middle
of the room. Laughing, the three cowhands took their plates and moved out of
the indoor rain.

The
oldest of them yelled toward the kitchen, “Linda, if we wanted to eat in the
elements, we would have eaten on the job.”

Linda,
the woman in charge, came out. “Oh, hush up. If you weren’t complaining about
the roof, you’d find something else to complain about.” She looked at the
heavily raining ceiling then looked outside. “Why does it always rain at
lunch?”

“Yeah,
yeah. Then who else would you mistreat?” He looked around for an empty, dry
table. Seeing none, he turned to Clayton, who was watching the indoor downpour
slack-jawed. “They’re kind of short on dry tables. Mind if we join you?”

“Oh,
no, not at all.”

“Allow
me to introduce myself. I’m Bowie Smith. And this is Kim Grayson.”

“Hi
there.” With a friendly, but thin smile, Kim extended his hand, and Clayton
nodded and shook it. Kim was compact, but broadly built, with a full face that
was expressive, yet always seemed to be holding back something.

“And
Mex Wilson.” He was called “Mex” because with his dark complexion, black
mustache, and thin build, his friends swore he must have some Mexican blood.
But he always good-naturedly denied it.

“Howdy.”

“I’m
Clayton Hays.”

“Nice
to meet you.”

They
all then got back to eating. Clayton kept looking over at the indoor rain as he
ate, but the hands were oblivious to it; it was nothing new.

Clayton
wasn’t the most talkative, approachable guy they had ever met; so the three
hands went back to talking among themselves. “So, Mex,” Bowie interrogated,
“are you going to be our third guy for poker? Kim and me are getting tired of
staring at each other on Thursday nights.”

“I
wish I could, but between workin’, huntin’, fishin’, and everthang else, I’m
already not around the house enough to please the wife. So I’d better pass on
adding a poker night.”

“The
way she nags you when you’re home, she must be real pleased to have you there.”
Bowie’s eyes had a light to them as he heckled Mex.

“Well,
you know how it goes.”

“Yeah,
I know how it goes. That’s why I’m a formerly
married man.”

“Now,
Bowie, what would Jane do without Mex,” Kim contributed. “She wouldn’t have
anyone to nag.”

“That’s
right,” Mex agreed.

Bowie
turned to Clayton, “Say, stranger, you wouldn’t happen to play some poker,
would you?”

He
shrugged. “Every once in a while.”

“Would
your woman let you play poker on Thursday nights?”

“I
don’t have a woman.”

“Hey,
that’s perfect.” Bowie slapped the table. “You won’t have no woman bitchin’ at
you when we take all your money. Would you join us, then?”

Clayton
smiled and thought a moment. “Sure.”

---

I
hope you enjoyed that excerpt.If
you would like to read more, there are about 80 hours left in the 100 Hour
Kindle Countdown deal for Pilot Point.You can get the Kindle version of my
novel for only $1.99! But the price
goes back up after the countdown goes to 0.

If
you prefer a print copy (as I do), Amazon has extended their 30% off offer for
another day. Use the promo code “HOLIDAY30” when you check out.(Remember you can use this offer on
only one book.)